Drew Dearden

New Technologies in the early 21st Century
Technology it has always been progressing and becoming more and more advanced. Competition helps make it better and grow. It will keep advancing and being updated to the times of the world, but we mustn’t let it take over the world completely. Technology, it’s in the present and will be the future.


I. Music

external image ab19fe52ipod_touch4.jpgDuring the early years of the 21st century, two world-changing inventions came into existence for music. The iPod, which premiered to the world October 23, 2001, changed the portable music player industry drastically. Tony Fadell thought of this incredible invention that allowed you to play music on the go. “Tony Fadell was a former employee of General Magic and Phillips who wanted to invent a better MP3 player. After being turned down by RealNetworks and Phillips, Fadell found support for his project with Apple.” Apple was on board with Fadell’s idea of a better MP3 player.
Fadell wanted to keep his idea simple and easy to use. He thought of making a menu screen to be able to have many different choices, such as making a playlist, searching songs alphabetically, and games. His idea was genius. He had the prices of the iPod vary, depending on how much memory it can hold. His first creation was a hit, and as the years have progressed, Apple has come out with many more generations which will keep getting more and more advanced as the century changes.
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The Internet phenomenon, YouTube, was founded in February 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. YouTube was created so that people could “watch and share original videos worldwide through the Web. Users can upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and YouTube enables video embedding that allows YouTube videos to be placed on non-YouTube pages.” YouTube spread like a forest fire. Once one person looked up a video, they would tell their friends to look it up, then they would post it on blogs and other sites to spread it even more so other people could watch it. Now, everyone uses it to watch videos for music, shows, and movies.



II. Transportation

external image 2011-Honda-Civic.jpgMany incredibly helpful inventions were also created in the 21st century for transportation uses. (For example, the ice bike.) The ice bike was invented in 2000 by a man named Doug Stoup, an adventurer, and Dan Hanebrink, a bike designer and aerospace engineer. Doug Stoup skied from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, but he said it was too slow. That’s where the idea for the ice bike came from. “The ice bike has no plastic parts (which would freeze and shatter in the extreme conditions), and the superfat, low-pressure tires provide traction in situations that would make a mountain bike weep.” This bike is perfect for icy and cold conditions and will get you where you need to go quickly.
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Another great transporting device is the hybrid or electric car. It was first thought of by a man named Robert Anderson in 1839. It started out as nothing really, very limited range and a non rechargeable battery, but the idea has been worked on and improved since then. As the years have gone on, the battery has been worked on and improved on duration and recharge-ability. It went from limited range to hundreds of miles, not re chargeable to recharging while driving. This concept of an electric car is so important because the goal of the electric car is to allow you to drive while polluting less. It has a battery attached to the engine which allows the battery to take over from time to time. As the years have gone by, the technology for the electric car has risen and become much more advanced. Two interesting things the car can do is “turning the engine off at stops, the Civic can save fuel by de-activating all of its cylinders and cruise under electric motor power alone in some circumstances.” This type of car has depleted the amount of pollution each year from cars, that’s why it is important that everyone gets one in the future.













Works Cited

  • Best Inventions of 2003. About, 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. <http://inventors.about.com/‌gi/‌o.htm?zi=1/‌XJ&zTi=1&sdn=inventors&cdn=money&tm=6&f=22&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3Awww.time.com/‌time/‌2003/‌inventions/‌invicebike.html>.


  • Honda Civic. Hybrid Cars, 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. <http://www.hybridcars.com/‌compacts-sedans/‌honda-civic-hybrid-overview.html>.